Asim Kumar Mitra
Grand RSS Youth Camp in Kolkata
to mark 150th birth anniversary of
Swami Vivekananda
“SOMEHOW or other we have forgotten the gospels of Swami Vivekananda where he said, do not forget that since your birth your life is totally dedicated to the work of Holy Mother and it has been for this reason our matrijati is suffering so much. Heinous and brutal acts are being pursued against them. No one is coming forward to protect the izzat of those hapless women in proper time,” said Shri Mohan Bhagwat, RSS Sarsanghachalak, at the concluding ceremony of Vivekananda Yuva Shivir held at Gayeshpur (Dist. Nadia), West Bengal. The Shivir was organised from January 11 to 13.
Shri Bhagwat further said, “We are the sinners if we cannot protect our Mother progeny. Time has come when we have to take a vow for implementation of Swamiji’s advices in real life.” More than 12,000 youths belonging to the age group between 15 and 40 years participated in the well disciplined and well organised grand Shivir.
Gayeshpur is a place which has been known for its rare quality of notoriety, as Communist Party of India (Marxist) has developed this place as a centre of their brutal power. A senior local Karyakarta of Sangh reminded us of the last Shivir (camp) held 20 years ago in 1992 was an experience of their brutality as they (CPM) have organised month long programme of street corner meetings surrounding the place of the camp to spread canards against Sangh and trying to instigate and provoke people, especially Muslims, to attack the participants of the camp. But it was not possible for them to do anything wrong as the organised swayamsevaks were ready to face the music. The then Higher Education Minister Satya Sadhan Chakravarty of Left Front Government led the hooligans by delivering regular lectures.
This time the scenario was completely different. Villagers from surrounding villages and from far flank areas flocked around the Vivekananda Yuva Shivir just to have a look at the congregation of so many Hindus came together for the salvation of the whole nation. The spontaneous awakening of Hindutva was visible.
Mohanji in his speech reminded that “Bharatmata had given birth to so many great sons in this holy land from 1817 to 1940-41, who made it possible the Hindu navotthan (new awakening) since 1897. In that year Swamiji said that we are going to achieve our freedom from the tyrant foreign rule. Hence forget all other Gods and Goddesses and worship only Bharat Mata. Let she be the only idol for us to worship.”
Mohanji further reminded: “We have forgotten the teachings of Swamiji and protection of freedom has become a problems. We have to be sincere and receptive of whatever Swamiji had told. We have to translate his teachings into action. Only this can make the nation proud in all respects.”
Earlier, inaugurating the Shivir, Swami Ritanandaji of Ramakrishna Math and editor of the monthly magazine Udbodhan, said Swamiji had to suffer much for his own countrymen. But undaunted Swami Vivekananda ignored for the sake of suffering people of India. While explaining different stages of 150 years of Swami Vivekananda’s life, divided his life and works into three parts although he lived for only 39 years, he is still relevant in the context of not only Indian society, but also in the world society —— first fifty years of his life and works people in general were unable to grasp the importance and greatness of his works and teachings. Next fifty years, had made some inroads into the mind of people. At the same time he had become the target of criticism by many people. But in the third fifty years Swami Vivekananda had started getting proper recognition and even the political elements had started thinking that Swamiji would become a vote-catcher for them.
The awakening of Hindutva, which is visible in the present-day India, is the result of relentless work of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Mohanji said, “RSS was established with the ideal of Hindu philosophy propagated by Swami Vivekananda. Hence, ‘man making’ has become the part and parcel of RSS ideology. It is because of RSS work that awakening of Hindutva has taken place in all the spheres of the society and this is the reason why the vibrant Hindus have accepted Swamiji.”
Shri Bhaiyaji Joshi, Sarkaryavah of RSS, formally inaugurated the Shivir on January 11. He declared, “Swamiji’s is Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s mission. Serve man, serve God was his slogan. Sangh on its own run 1,60,000 service centres with a yearly budget of Rs. 100 crore and it is worth mentioning here that this money is coming from the Aam Admi of the country. We do not accept any government donation. His advice to the countrymen was think globally, act locally.”
Apart from Kolkata, swayamsevaks from all other cities of South Bengal participated in the camp. Swayamsevaks from 2,152 villages including 669 newly contacted were present. Retired Major General KK Ganguly was Chairman of the Reception Committee, which was filled up with the luminaries of the state. Akhil Bharatiya Adhikaries like Sahsarkaryavah Shri Dattatreya Hosbale, Shri Madhubhai Kulkarni Bauddhik Pramukh Shri Bhagaiahji, Sharirik Pramukh Shri Anil Oke, ‘Chanakya’ fame TV artist Chandraprakash Dwivedy, Baba Satyanarayan Maurya, etc. were also present in the camp and participated in different programmes.
The specialty of the camp was that the swayamsevaks belonging to 15 years and 40 years age group managed everything including the management of the stage.
